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Back to school…or not: Family heads around the world instead

Heather Greenwood Davis&rsquo;s kids will spend this school year on a family trip around the world.

Heather Greenwood Davis's sons Ethan and Cameron, seen here on the Great Wall of China, will be learning outside of the classroom this year on a year-long trip around the world. (HEATHER GREENWOOD DAVIS PHOTO)

It’s that time again for backpacks and lunch bins and juice boxes and new jeans. Time to get acquainted with new teachers, fresh pencils and a desk waiting to be filled with school letters and homework that the kids will forget to bring home.

It’s back-to-school time.

Except that it’s not.

For my family? It’s just September.

This year my kids won’t be going back.

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Instead they’ll continue into their third month of a one-year around the world trip with my husband and me. I like to think of it as Back to School 2.0.

At the end of June we contacted the school board, signed the form confirming that we would be home schooling the kids as of September, packed our bags and took off.

That’s not to say that we’ve washed our hands of their education.

Over the last year, we’ve had many meetings with the teachers and principal at their school discussing ways we can work together to help our boys continue to feel like a part of the school community; and their peers to benefit from our experiences abroad.

And so while our kids are taking their learning on the road, they’ll be using technology, including the Motorola Xoom tablet we’re traveling we’ve got with us, to keep in touch with their teachers and peers at home.

And they already have so much to share:

Instead of history lessons from textbooks, they’re hearing about the past from the ancestors of the people who lived it. Instead of the science fair volcano project, they’re climbing Volcanos, sitting in the craters and learning how they came to be.

Instead of simply learning that Canada has three prairie provinces, they explored them. They fished on the Red River in Manitoba. They called for moose in Alberta. They listened to the tales of a First Nations dancer in Saskatchewan.

They’re learning math as we discuss currencies. They’re learning culture by making friends who speak no English. They’re learning geography with every flight and they’re learning social life skills (how to get along with people, how to keep themselves entertained, how to introduce themselves to new people) all the time.

The decision to take them out of school for a one-year exploration of the planet was an easy decision to make, but it wasn’t one we made lightly.

Education is important to us. We’ve both attended university and understand its importance to a career down the road.

But on that well-worn path of school to school to career, we’ve seen other things too.

Intelligent men and women who died too young thanks to prestigious but stressful careers that put a lot of money in the bank but left their dreams in their pockets. Creative people growing increasingly depressed in cubicles that stifle their creativity.

And too many kids who think a trip to the Eaton Centre is an exotic experience or worse, as far as they can go.

The decision to take the boys on this trip was about teaching them that the boundaries on\f their world need only be as limiting as they make them. It was to add a third dimension to their learning and through our blog ( www.globetrottingmama.com), hopefully that of other students whose teachers see the value of our goals.

So far it’s working. Teachers from our own school and others as far away as Ottawa and New York have reached out to us, letting us know that this year they’re hoping to travel with us in spirit and through the computers in their classrooms.

And so, while my kids won’t be joining the bus line this year, our blog, Skype and other online communication tools will mean the learning will continue.

Heather Greenwood Davis is a freelance writer. Her globetrotting family just crossed the 60 day mark of their trip when they entered their seventh country - China. Follow along at www.globetrottingmama.com.

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